Jefferies analyst, Biren Amin, reiterated his Buy rating on shares of Kite Pharma (NASDAQ: KITE) after the company's annual R&D investor where the company shared its vision to bring KTE-C19 forward to the market, discussed mfr, reimbursement, and detailed launch strategy. KITE continues to invest in multiple trials for KTE-C19 to drive potentially broader use longer term. KITE also announced a series of programs that it plans to move into the clinic including one with AMGN.

The company's commercial team outlined its discussion with seven managed care payors and state that they have received positive feedback and plan to continue the dialogue. KITE outlined several key comps on pricing w/ lowest priced Revlimid priced at $300K over a 2-year tx period and upwards to $450K with Blincyto over a similar tx period. KITE expects a roughly equal split among patients under gov't plans vs commercial plans.

KITE intends to improve on the clinical profile of KTE-C19 through various approaches. An expansion trial evaluating KTE-C19 in ~50 r/r NHL patients who are administered tocilizumab at day 2 and levetiracetam 750 mg daily could lead to reduced toxicity. KITE plans to collect and analyze CSF fluid at day 5 and day 30 and compare to baseline, and will attempt to correlate an increase in cytokine levels in the CSF fluid to cytokine storm/neurotox. Data from this trial are expected in 2017.

No change to $72 PT.

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